Dattatreya Jayanti is the birth of Lord Dattatreya, the one form in which Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are joined — the whole Trimurti as a single guru. He is the son of the sage Atri and Sati Anasuya, and comes to us with three heads and six arms, the four Vedas as four dogs at his feet, a cow standing behind him, and the audumbar tree at his side. He is the Avadhuta, the naked wandering ascetic who owns nothing and belongs everywhere, and the adi-guru of the Datta tradition. In 2026 his day falls on Wednesday, 23 December.
The date is Margashirsha Purnima, the full moon of Margashirsha — the month also called Agahan. The Purnima tithi runs from 10:48 AM on 23 December to 6:59 AM on the 24th, and the puja is kept on the evening of the 23rd, in the pradosh of the full moon, because Dattatreya is held to have been born at dusk. The day is strongest in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, where the Datta Sampradaya runs deep — and the seven days before are often given to a reading of the Guru Charitra, completed on Jayanti.
Dattatreya Jayanti 2026 at a glance
- Festival day
- Wed, 23 December 2026
- Lunar month
- Margashirsha (Agahan) · Purnima
- Purnima tithi
- 23 Dec 10:48 AM → 24 Dec 6:59 AM
- The day marks
- The birth of Lord Dattatreya
- Deity
- Dattatreya (Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva)
- Parents
- Sage Atri & Sati Anasuya
The two cards hold the two facts a reader comes for. Dattatreya Jayanti 2026 is Wednesday, 23 December, kept on Margashirsha Purnima. The Purnima tithi itself opens at 10:48 AM on 23 December and closes at 6:59 AM on the 24th, so the full moon covers the whole of the 23rd's evening — and the puja is kept then, in the pradosh, the hour of Dattatreya's birth. The times here are for New Delhi in IST; the tithi window and pradosh shift with your city, so confirm your local timing on the panchang.
Who Dattatreya is
Atri and Anasuya, the Trimurti in one, and the Avadhuta guru
The story begins in the ashram of the sage Atri and his wife Anasuya, whose chastity and virtue were famous through the three worlds. The goddesses Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati, uneasy at that fame, resolved to test it, and sent their own husbands — Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva — to Anasuya's door as guests. The three came as sadhus and asked to be fed while she was without clothing, a demand meant to break her. But Anasuya, by the power of her virtue, sprinkled water and turned the three great gods into infants, and took them to her breast as her own children. When the goddesses came seeking their husbands and relented, the Trimurti, pleased by her, granted that they would be born to her as one son who held all three. That son is Dattatreya — datta, "the given," and Atreya, "son of Atri." He took to the life of an Avadhuta, wandering free of all ties, and became the guru whom later masters of the Datta line — Sripada Srivallabha, Narasimha Saraswati and others — are held to continue.
Brahma
Creator
Vishnu
Preserver
Shiva
Destroyer
🔱
Dattatreya
the three in one
How to read his image
👤
Three heads
Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva
🙌
Six arms
The emblems of all three gods
🐕
Four dogs
The four Vedas at his feet
🐄
The cow
The earth and dharma he guards
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Audumbar tree
His seat and living shrine
The 24 gurus of Dattatreya
The teachers he took from the world around him
What Dattatreya is most loved for is the teaching of the 24 gurus. In the Bhagavata Purana, King Yadu finds this radiant ascetic wandering alone and content, and asks who taught him such peace. Dattatreya answers that he has had twenty-four gurus — and not one of them a person. He took them all from the world around him, each teaching a single lesson by its own way of being.
1.Earth
Forbearance — bear all, keep giving.
2.Wind
Move among all, stay untainted.
3.Sky
All-pervading, yet untouched.
4.Water
Purity — cleanse wherever you flow.
5.Fire
Consume all, keep no stain.
6.Moon
The self is unchanged by its phases.
7.Sun
Give back all you gather.
8.Pigeon
Attachment invites ruin.
9.Python
Content with what comes unsought.
10.Ocean
Deep and calm, however much pours in.
11.Moth
Craving for form destroys.
12.Honeybee
Take the essence, never hoard.
13.Elephant
Lust leads to the trap.
14.Honey-gatherer
The hoarder’s wealth feeds another.
15.Deer
Lured to ruin by sound.
16.Fish
Greed for taste is the hook.
17.Pingala
Give up hope, and find peace.
18.Osprey
Drop what others covet, be safe.
19.Child
Carefree, beyond honour and insult.
20.Maiden
In solitude there is quiet.
21.Arrow-maker
One-pointed, lost to the world.
22.Serpent
Wander alone; build no den of your own.
23.Spider
Spins the web from itself, then draws it back.
24.Beetle
You become what you dwell upon.
How the day is kept
The Guru Charitra saptaha, the evening puja, and the Datta kshetras
The seven days before are often given to a Guru Charitra saptaha — a reading of the Guru Charitra, the chief Datta scripture, finished on Jayanti. Devotees fast and bathe early, and keep the Datta puja in the evening pradosh with lamps, incense, bhajans and palkhi processions. The great Datta kshetras — Gangapur, Narsobawadi and Audumbar on the Krishna, the Datta peak at Girnar, Mahur in the Sahyadris, and Pithapuram in Andhra — draw their largest gatherings of the year.
See the panchang and pradosh for your city on 23 December
The Purnima here — 23 Dec 10:48 AM to 24 Dec 6:59 AM — is for New Delhi, and the puja is kept in the evening pradosh. For your own city's sunset, pradosh and choghadiya on 23 December, open the live panchang.
Dattatreya Jayanti 2026 — your questions
The date, the Trimurti story, the 24 gurus and how the day is observed